-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It 's not the most ambitious Kickstarter in history , but maybe that 's the secret ingredient that 's making one man 's pitch on the crowd-funding website so successful .

Well , maybe that and a little dill .

`` Basically I 'm just making potato salad . I have n't decided what kind yet , '' wrote Zack Brown on his campaign 's Kickstarter page .

In a campaign that went online over the holiday weekend , Brown 's goal was to raise only $ 10 .

He tempered any expectations -- if there were any . `` It might not be that good . It 's my first potato salad . ''

Despite his own lukewarm forecast , potential investors were not shaken by Brown 's recipe indecisiveness and lack of experience . By Sunday evening , Brown had raised nearly $ 5,000 by 850 backers .

`` I never thought it would go this far , '' Brown of Columbus told a Reddit `` Ask Me Anything '' session . `` $ 10 seemed like a good , conservative goal . I think the thing people are responding to is the opportunity to come together around something equal parts absurd and mundane . ''

So what do investors -- which Kickstarter calls `` backers , '' get in return ? A pledge of $ 1 -- of which there were more than 300 by Sunday evening -- earns a `` thank you '' from Brown on the website as well as aloud while the potato salad is made . But for $ 20 , you get a potato-salad themed haiku written by Brown and a signed jar of mayonnaise .

As the campaign caught steam over the holiday weekend , a new goal was set : at $ 3,000 the `` whole Internet '' would be invited to Columbus to taste the potato salad .

That did n't take long .

`` We 're going to need a lot of potato salad ! '' he wrote when $ 3,000 came and went . `` It could take me weeks to make it . ''

Asked on Reddit why he was doing it , Brown got philosophical .

`` Potato Salad is n't controversial , but it seems to unite us all . ''

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Ohio man hoped to raise $ 10 on Kickstarter to make potato salad for the first time

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By Sunday evening , more than 850 pledged nearly $ 5,000 to Zach Brown

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`` Entire Internet '' invited to a party to taste Brown 's recipe